Health - Harm Reduction of Methylphenidate "Misuse"

[Laudaphun]

Define misuse however you like, but SWIM is referring more specifically to the insufflation or injection of it. SWIM does not condone the uses, but rather poses a work in progress to reduce bodily damage, more particularly in people who are regular abusers of it or other pills that contain like binders and fillers.

SWIM has decided to conduct her own study on one specific brand of methylphenidate pill through analysis of it's composition and their specific properties and ways to remove them. So the conclusions drawn from SWIMs observations will not be of use to anyone using other brands, but they could apply the same method to analyze them.

Manufacturer: Watson (U.S. formulation anyways)
10mg instant release tablet
20mg instant release tablet

The obvious first step in their analysis yielded a surprising and very useful bit of information. Originally, SWIM had intended on only testing the 10mg tablets, but is glad she decided to analyze both, since they were available. The 10mg methylphenidate tablet weighed an average of 0.150 grams and the 20mg methylphenidate tablet weighed only an average of 0.200 grams. Actually, most pills will weigh about an average of 0.002 to 0.004 grams less than the above stated, but a fresh pill straight from the pharmacy in an unopened bottle will weigh 0.150 grams and 0.200 grams respectively... They lose a tiny fraction of weight due just rattling around in the bottle. Keep in mind, this is a specific brand only, and that other brands will likely differ. However, one could investigate their own particular brand or formulation in a similar method.

So, for a 10mg tablet the methylphenidate accounds for only 6 2/3% (6.67%) of the total weight of the tablet.

In a 20mg tablet, MPH actually accounts for 10% of the total weight of the pill, meaning you've got only a 40mg difference in their inactive agents, while a 10mg increase in active ingredient. In percentages that translates into a 100% increase in methylphenidate and a 28.572% increase in inactive ingredients. So obviously, if you are not inclined to take any further safety precautions, and you have the option, the 20mg tablets would be considerably safer. Hence, if the need arises SWIM would now reserve the 20mg tablets for "other than prescribed" methods of ingestion, and use the 10mg tablets as directed.

Supposing you want to break it down further... Aside from the weight differences, you still have the binding-agents, and fillers. Package insert mentions 4 main inactive ingredients.


Inactive ingredients:
Colloidal silicon dioxide - anyone with a basic background in chemistry and knowledge of a disease called "black lung" can understand why a person would not want to be ingesting this via insufflation... not good for veins either. For those of you who do not know that much about chemistry or black lung, trust SWIM... not a good thing to be directly introducing into the body. However, it should be completely insoluble, however very small so regular cotton might not filter it out.

Compressible Sugars - Because of the high solubility of sucrose, tablets containing compressible sugar as a filler do not disintegrate, but rather the sugar dissolves, releasing the active drug.
Lactose Monohydrate (Lactose) - SWIM assumes this to be the least harmful of the inactive ingredients. 0.216 g of lactose dissolving readily in 1 mL of water. However... the solubility changes with temperature. Lactose in water is 0.189 g at 25°C, 0.251 g at 40°C and 0.372 g at 60°C per 100 g solution.

Its solubility in ethanol is 0.0111 g at 40°C and 0.0270 g at 60°C per 100 g solution

Magnesium Stearate - is not soluble in water, and is generally considered safe for human consumption (still probably not good to introduce via insufflation or injection). Because it is widely regarded as harmless, it is often used as a filling agent in the manufacture of medical tablets and capsules(again, remember these pills were intended to be swallowed). It is used to bind sugar in hard candies. Still, if you read the MSDS on this chemical, it's probably something you want to avoid if insufflation or injecting a pill containing it.

SWIM has done nothing with this data other than compile it, and could do a more quantitative analysis about methods of purification of the pill. But, supposing a pill was filtered through cotton, SWIM would assume, most of the solution would contain MPH, sugars, and some Si O2. However, in theory a better filter could remove more if not most of the Silicon Dioxide. This is all something SWIM had a dream about last night so do with this information as you will and treat it as just a that, a dream.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	excellent idea for a post
	Very informative!
	very factual and informative!

[HorseBucket]

What would be the main health hazard associated with Ritalin insufflation? Swim thinks it would be similar to coke. Drugs in their HCl form cause no harm to the stomach since the stomach is already full of HCl but can erode the cartilage in the nose and sinuses.

Thats just a guess on swims part he hasn't done any research in this area.

[toe]

The voices in my head tell me about reports of filtering the active ingredient out utilizing its unique alcohol solubility (namely- isopropyl). On another board there are reports of saturating the pulverized tablets with isopropyl alcohol, and filtering (unbleached coffee filters were mentioned) the resulting liquid into a shallow dish for evap, leaving (allegedly, mostly) clean methylphenidate hcl.

Obviously, success with this method is going to depend on the inactives involved and the amount of wastage directly correlates to the degree of the researcher's impatience- but doesn't it always?

[Laudaphun]

Originally Posted by HorseBucket

What would be the main health hazard associated with Ritalin insufflation? Swim thinks it would be similar to coke. Drugs in their HCl form cause no harm to the stomach since the stomach is already full of HCl but can erode the cartilage in the nose and sinuses.

Thats just a guess on swims part he hasn't done any research in this area.

Lots of drugs that are available in their HCl form do not erode the nasal lining like cocaine does, however maybe they just don't get the publicity that cocaine does. However SWIM has known of people who have insufflated cocaine for very short periods of time which resulted in very rapid deterioration of the nasal lining... perhaps these people are just very sensitive. Perhaps this might be a more significant problem with methylphenidate if it were used in its pure form without the binding agents and fillers, however silica present in methylphenidate tablets are what SWIM believes to be the greatest health hazard from insufflation. Silica is very hydroscopic, meaning it attracts water, but at the same time is insoluble in water, existing as colloidal substances... This would be hard to remove with typical techniques although the one mentioned above might work.

The big problem is that insufflation of silica along with the active ingredients. Silica in it's crystalline form is a well known carcinogen, but in pharmaceuticals silicon dioxide is used. Silica-based particles that are not filtered out by the nasal passages and got into the lungs would bind to the lining of the lungs. The end result causes scarring, and the body is not as able to heal itself such as it is from the damage resulting from smoking. SWIM would imagine that chronic insufflation of silica containing methylphenidate tablets would cause a similar condition to what is known commonly as "Black Lung", a disease which often killed many coal miners in the past as they were always exposed to very fine silica particles in the dust when digging for coal veins.

If you want to see what silicon dioxide does, dissolve a methylphenidate tablet in water and draw it through cotton, and allow put it on a plate or something and allow it to dry. You will see how much "goop" is really in what appears to be a liquid solution.

The method in the previous post seems to be a good idea, but SWIM does not know. One would have to do quantitative experimentations to be sure. Assuming that the resulting crystals were not hydroscopic and in fact did contain methylphenidate, it would seem a perfectly good manner to implement harm-reduction.

[HorseBucket]

This is a cause for concern for swim because swims had mild asthma problems when he snorted Ritalin. It was the long acting brand of Ritalin he snorted, they were these little balls that were hard to crush and powderize and sometimes he'd get this extreme tickly cough and got some mild asthma attacks. Nothing serious swims allergies played a large role in it too but he thinks the Ritalin triggered it.

Is insufflation the most efficient method of ingestion (apart from IV)?

Not to hijack the thread but swims wondering if anyone else gets ice cold hands when on Ritalin. Thats about the only side effect Ritalin has on swim. Swims naturally thick blooded. It usually takes a long time for it to heat up or cool down but when he takes Ritalin his hands are always cold even if the rooms warm.

[tryptamaster]

yea on any stim swims extremeties go ice cold. this included amphetamine but to a lesser extent cocaine. swim belives he read that it does this due to changes in circulation but is not totally sure.

[doggy_hat]

Originally Posted by HorseBucket

This is a cause for concern for swim because swims had mild asthma problems when he snorted Ritalin. It was the long acting brand of Ritalin he snorted, they were these little balls that were hard to crush and powderize and sometimes he'd get this extreme tickly cough and got some mild asthma attacks. Nothing serious swims allergies played a large role in it too but he thinks the Ritalin triggered it.

Is insufflation the most efficient method of ingestion (apart from IV)?

Not to hijack the thread but swims wondering if anyone else gets ice cold hands when on Ritalin. Thats about the only side effect Ritalin has on swim. Swims naturally thick blooded. It usually takes a long time for it to heat up or cool down but when he takes Ritalin his hands are always cold even if the rooms warm.

Methylphenidate is a vasco-constricant, which is the means it causes blood vessels to shrink in diameter, and can be responsible for a numbing effect(Cocaine causes numbness for this reason). So I think that this is the most likely cause for SWIY getting cold hands.

If one were to crush up Methylphenidate pill, and mix it with water, then filter through a coffee filter, and allowed to evaporate, would that be safe? Or are some of these hazardous materials fine enough to pass through?

[HorseBucket]

Swim took a look at the composition of his friends Ritalin and he noticed theres only lactose, starch and maize in there. Are these 3 ingredients harmful at all?

[doggy_hat]

Originally Posted by HorseBucket

Swim took a look at the composition of his friends Ritalin and he noticed theres only lactose, starch and maize in there. Are these 3 ingredients harmful at all?

Well lactose is just a sugar, so it's very water soluble. I'd doubt it'd cause any damage to the sinus membrane, and the lungs would just absorb it and pass it into the blood stream. So lactose shouldn't be bad. Starches are complex sugars, they're not as readily soluble in water as simple sugars like lactose. I'm not really sure how the lungs would handle starch, although I think they'd eventually be absorbed. And solubility varies depending on the type of starch. And maize is corn. maybe SWIY meant it has corn starch? It seems rather odd to use corn as an ingredient in a pill.

[HorseBucket]

Lol maybe swim got the maize part mixed up with something else. He'll have to check that leaflet another time. It was definitely one of those things you see listed in the ingredients of food.

[doggy_hat]

Hmm, I did a quick search and found that there are actually quite a few more inactive ingredients than what you listed.

Ritalin Instant Release Tablets inactive ingredients are: D&C Yellow No. 10 (5-mg and 20-mg tablets), FD&C Green No. 3 (10-mg tablets), lactose, magnesium stearate, polyethylene glycol, starch (5-mg and 10-mg tablets), sucrose, talc, and tragacanth (20-mg tablets).

Is SWIM referring to generic Ritalins, or maybe the leaflet had an incomplete list?

[Laudaphun]

delete post please

[tryptamaster]

swim belived cocaine is more damaging to the nasal lining because of its very strong vsao-constrctive effects. basically, prolunged abuse causes oxygen definciaines in the cells in ur nasal lining causing them to die and fuck ur nose up.

[HorseBucket]

Originally Posted by doggy_hat

Hmm, I did a quick search and found that there are actually quite a few more inactive ingredients than what you listed.

Ritalin Instant Release Tablets inactive ingredients are: D&C Yellow No. 10 (5-mg and 20-mg tablets), FD&C Green No. 3 (10-mg tablets), lactose, magnesium stearate, polyethylene glycol, starch (5-mg and 10-mg tablets), sucrose, talc, and tragacanth (20-mg tablets).

Is SWIM referring to generic Ritalins, or maybe the leaflet had an incomplete list?

Swim has the leaflet here. Swiys right swim doesn't know how he only read lactose, maize and starch. Heres the inactives

"calcium phosphate, lactose monohydrate, wheat starch, gelatin, magnesium stearate, and talc"

these are 10 mg's. Doesn't say quick release anywhere.

[toe]

The method in the previous post seems to be a good idea, but SWIM does not know. One would have to do quantitative experimentations to be sure. Assuming that the resulting crystals were not hydroscopic and in fact did contain methylphenidate, it would seem a perfectly good manner to implement harm-reduction.

My minions humbly admit that they do not know the meaning of "hydroscopic" and thus cannot debate you on this point. They unanimously confirm that the results contain methylphenidate, and little else (if anything at all). Either that, or Novartis has been pulling a fast one on all of us for years, and the active ingredient in "Ritalin" is not, in fact, methylphenidate at all.

Whatever the evapped filtrate is, it's definitely the active ingredient in Mother's Real Little Helper.

(I joke, of course. Drug companies don't deliberately mislead consumers through the addition of unlisted addictive chemicals to their product.)

[Laudaphun]

After much debate on whether to post this or the manner in which to approach it, SWIM's marmoset finally came to the conclusion that eliminating the inactive ingredients in order to achieve very close to pure methylphenidate is probably not really a solution in regards to harm-reduction unless a person is absolutely hell-bent on continuing to snort/shoot methylphenidate.

Anyways, different tablets will have different fillers and while methylphenidate is insoluble in water, methylphenidate HCl is pretty much soluble in everything, including water. This is theoretical but alcohol would be likely the best choice for a first extraction but while anhydrous alcohol is not common, 91% isopropyl alcohol is. A single extraction will produce a VERY high yield if done correctly using common household materials... Be creative, it's not especially difficult. The biggest problem SWIM dreamed about was spilling the filtrate before it had a chance to evaporate. In her dream she also was hesitant about further attempts since she didnt' feel like wasting any more pills. Finally she decided on a final attempt and after revising the procedure attained a beautiful site upon evaporation. This was performed at a microscale level. The result was estimated at around 60-80% purity with whatever happened to either be soluble in isopropyl alcohol or the slight amount of water it was diluted with. A second extraction with a solvent that whatever happened to be soluble in your first extraction besides methylphenidate (varying from generic formulation to formulation). Nearly pure methylphenidate should be possible (depending on brand). SWIM dreamed that this applied to IR formulation. Time-release crap SWIM knows nothing about.

The problem is that you really have no idea how pure your methylphenidate hcl is and may be 50% or 95% pure. Unless you have your own chemistry lab it's gonna be tough to tell for sure. Plus, the purity would likely depend a great deal on the care taken by the individual, along with the particular method/apparatus, and of course the brand as there is no gaurentee what works for one brand will work the same for another, or give the same purity with the same amount of effort.

There is a point at which methylphenidate makes a person feel good and then a point at which it makes them feel like shit (higher doses). SWIM finds too much methylphenidate makes her marmoset just feel blah and swalllow a handful of tranquillizers just because she overshot the euphoric boundry and hit the "feel like shit" threshold. Which is totally a waste of both the methylphenidate and the tranquillizers.

SWIM feels that if you are going to be abusing stimulants, and you end up with a good system down for extracting the active ingredient from your methylphenidate tabs. You then have a very powerful drug which at least in the case of SWIM's marmoset, the effects are not linear with dose. So unless you are using very small doses, SWIM does not feel that having 100% pure methylphenidate to snort is necessarily the safest way to go about abusing your meds. While insufflating pills that contain 5-10% active ingredient is not particularly healthy either.

SWIM's conclusion is that the result from a careful extraction is best treated with great caution as what SWIY are used to insufflating is a fraction of what you now need. Tread lightly. SWIM does not feel that methylphenidate is a good pill for ingestion in any manner other than orally as intended.

SWIM has discovered other ways she feels may minimize any ill effects on the body caused by stimulants regardless if they are taken for recreational or therapeutic purposes and the manner/dosage ingested. Will update this when time permits and SWIM is more certain of the validity of the harm reduction techniques

[HorseBucket]

Swims discovered that a lot of this mental crash is purely psychological. Swims noticed that when he has some things to do but starts putting them off till the last minute that he subconsciously gets filled with stress and starts to feel physically sick but when he finally decides to do the tasks he was putting off and gets them done then his headache goes away the stress goes away and he feels refreshed and much better than usual.

[Laudaphun]

Originally Posted by toe

My minions humbly admit that they do not know the meaning of "hydroscopic" and thus cannot debate you on this point....

(I joke, of course. Drug companies don't deliberately mislead consumers through the addition of unlisted addictive chemicals to their product.)

Sorry, was a typo and the correct term should have been hygroscopic SWIM believes as opposed to hydroscopic. Some of the fillers will make evaporation difficult resulting in a sticky goo. Appologies for the typo.

[Laudaphun]

An addition to this thread, as in the case of stimulants such as these, SWIM feels harm reduction measures necessary even when not misused. Such as monitoring ones diet, getting proper rest, and adjusting fluid intake. Even when not misuing methylphenidate it is easy to forget to eat, especially if you are a college kid, living on your own for the first time in your life, and no one there to feed you, tell you to take a bath, get a haircut, get off of the computer cause it's 6am and you need to be at school/work at 8am.

It's easy to get wrapped up into studies and really stressed out at which point you pay less attention to your appetite and hygeine, you get more stressed, you are not taking care of your body quite as well, not eating as much... not realizing these things. The quality of your work deteriorates, gradually, and you can't figure out why... everything is crystal clear. But your body is weary, it's normal warning signs that stress is too much, you aren't eating right, drinking enough water, fatigue goes un-noticed. Eventually your body tells you when it's had enough

Then finally your body gets pissed and decides it's going to take a vacation whether you want to or not. You fall victim to depression, or whatever. It's amazing what a difference those vitamins, minerals, and calories make. At this point you might blame your medication... you wake up feel like crap which is alleviated once you take that pill. But then down the road you discover this not to be the case and realize it is just the overwelming amount of work that has gradually piled by.... the downward spiral continues until you feel like crap and the pills are an anti-depressant rather than a study aid. This can eventually lead to misuse in someone who ordinarily wouldn't have misused their meds. And probably these people will get their shit together and again use the medication responsibily. Most all AMP or similar ADHD drugs, the term "drug holiday" is used in physician prescribing instructions. SWIM is not sure how often this is actually enforced but.

But in cases where there is misuse, it is likely self-limiting. But in patients who do not misuse medication, they might never run out of pills... even if their physician has told them to take a month off it's a good possibility they have plenty extras from prior prescriptions.

You get the idea...

SWIM thinks there is just as much harm reduction to think about even if you do not misuse your meds.

(1) a lot already do this but, over breaks, vacations, etc (with consent of dr. of course) perhaps talk about these drug holidays.
(2) Don't forget to Eat! In fact make it a point to try to eat more!
(3) If you get side-effects that seem to develop over time, instead of instantly thinking they are a direct result of the pill, question whether they are an indirect side-effect (i.e. vitamin deficiency from not eating enough, or other nutritional deficit). But certainly do not rule out the possibility that they ARE a direct result.

Perhaps a journal of things relevant to overall health such as recording times/dates of deals and tracking weight could be of some use. Actually not just with methylphenidate, but a journal tracking general daily things that affect body to see trends to help.